Business eye: How much does music affect your business?

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Alex Pratt

Published:16:47Tuesday 11 April 2017

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How much does music feature in your business thinking? I can tell you; not enough.

Music whisks us away on an extended journey in our minds or can make time feel frozen in an instant. It has the power to suggest movement and it can trigger all our emotions. You only need look at the tears in the crowd watching and listening to one of the great rock bands to witness its deep impact.

I bet you can remember a moment when a song has made you sad, excited, or happy. Not just one time but many, right?

How organised tones create such an effect on our senses is not fully understood but studies indicate agreement as to which emotions pertain to certain scales, chords and harmonies. It’s not quite formulaic but there are discernible patterns.

Certain jazz musicians convey deep sadness and a state of melancholy; the blues, a wholly different experience to disco or Beethoven.

Imagine how your driving mood changes with music.

Have you noticed its effect when entering a fancy restaurant? Look at its use in film and TV to set the mood of a scene.

In the end, most successful businesses are as much about brand and generating a sense of belonging as they are about what they do or produce. What is amazing about music is that it is imbedded within all of us and is therefore open to every business as a resource to build empathy.

Everyone can understand it and feel something if they listen and allow the music in.

Music binds those who are listening together in a group and brings tribal interaction through dance and song. This type of behaviour is deeply rooted in what it means to be a human being. So, knowing this, how do you deploy music in your business to get your customers to sing and dance with you?

Playing with other musicians can also be an incredible feeling.

Some describe it as rowing down a river together. You get a certain type of more spiritual connection when you make music in a group.

Does your team make music together or do they make a cacophony of unrelated noise, or worse still operate like a library where emotion and passions are subject to the tyranny of silence?

Why not think about how you could build music more into your business?

It will bring you to a new level of connection with everyone involved.